[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Greenwood Lake 1-6-1975. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The Village Clerk/Treasurer of the Village of Greenwood Lake shall hereby be designated as the records access officer and shall have the duty of coordinating the municipality's response and that of its agencies to public requests for access to records and shall be responsible for assuring that:
A. 
An up-to-date subject matter list is maintained.
B. 
Assistance be given to the requester in the identification of records, if necessary.
C. 
Upon locating the records he takes one of the following actions:
(1) 
He makes records promptly available for inspection.
(2) 
He denies access to the records in whole or in part and explains in writing the reasons therefor.
D. 
Upon request for copies of records:
(1) 
He makes a copy available upon payment of $0.25 per page or, if any document exceeds 8 1/2 inches by 14 inches, he ascertains the cost for commercial copy to be prepared and, upon payment of said cost, he has said copy requested prepared; or he permits the requester to copy the records at no charge. If the requester does not provide sufficient information to locate particular data requested and an extensive search of the files is required, an additional fee of $2.50 per file searched beyond the initial file checked will be charged.
(2) 
The minutes of the Village Board for the 12 months preceding the request will be searched at no charge. However, the minutes of each prior twelve-month period or part thereof shall be considered as one file. There will be no charge if the requester personally searches the minutes.
E. 
Upon request, he certifies that a transcript is a true copy of records copied, said certifications to be made at no charge.
F. 
Upon failure to locate records, he certifies that:
(1) 
The agency is not the legal custodian for such records.
(2) 
The records of which the agency is a legal custodian cannot be found.
All requests for public records shall be made to and be available from the office of the Village Clerk/Treasurer of Greenwood Lake, New York, at the Village office on Waterstone Road or at any subsequent location of said office that it shall be officially relocated to.
Requests for public access to records shall be accepted and produced during all hours that the Village Clerk's office is open for business. Requests made immediately prior to the daily closing of said office, that cannot be complied with within the regular working day remaining shall be accepted and complied with at the next following regular workday or as hereinafter covered in § 23-4.
A. 
Requests for records may be oral or in writing. Written requests shall not be required for records that have been customarily available without written request. If the records requested are extensive, unique, requiring search of files or questionable as to their legal availability to the requester, the Village Clerk/Treasurer shall have the prerogative to require that the request be made in writing.
B. 
There shall be prompt response to any request for records. Except under extraordinary circumstances, the response shall be made no more than five working days after receipt of the oral or written request.
C. 
Requests for access to records should be sufficiently detailed to identify the records, and where possible, the requester should supply information regarding dates, titles, file descriptions or designations or other information which may help identify the records so that municipal personnel can locate same within a reasonable period of time.
D. 
A request for any or all records falling within a specific category shall conform to the standard that records be identifiable.
E. 
No records may be removed by the requester from the office where the record is available or located without the express permission of municipal or agency personnel responsible for the maintaining of said records.
A. 
The Village Board of Trustees shall be designated to hear appeals for denial of access to records under the Freedom of Information Law.[1] Three members of said Board, including the Mayor, shall constitute a quorum to review and pass on such appeals.
[1]
Editor's Note: See Public Officers Law § 84 et seq.
B. 
Denial of access shall be in writing by the Village Clerk/Treasurer, stating the reason therefor and advising the requester of his right to appeal to the Village Board of Trustees.
C. 
If the municipality or its agency fails to provide requested records promptly as required and heretofore stated in § 23-4B, such failure shall be deemed a denial of access by the municipality.
D. 
The time for deciding an appeal by the Village Board of Trustees designated to hear appeals shall commence upon receipt of a written appeal identifying:
(1) 
The date and location of requests for records.
(2) 
The records to which the requester was denied access.
(3) 
The name and return address of the requester.
E. 
The Village Board of Trustees hearing the appeal shall inform the requester of its decision within seven business days of receipt of the appeal.
F. 
A formal denial of access to a requested record, as provided for in Subsection E above, shall be subject to court review as provided for in Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules.
The following records are available for public inspection and copying:
A. 
Final opinions and determinations made by the Village Board, Planning Board and Board of Appeals, including concurring and dissenting opinions, as well as orders made in the adjudication of cases.
B. 
Those statements of policy and interpretations which have been adopted by the agency and any documents, memoranda, data or other materials constituting statistical or factual tabulations which led to the formulation thereof.
C. 
Minutes and tapes of meetings of the governing body, if any, of the agency and of public hearings held by the agency.
D. 
Internal or external audits and statistical or factual tabulations made by or for the agency.
E. 
Administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect members of the public.
F. 
Police blotters and booking records.
G. 
Audit reports, budgets, census reports, civil defense reports, debt statements, annual financial reports, election records, bank statements, bond registers, federal and state aid records, tax collection records, purchasing records, bids, insurance policies and contracts.
H. 
An itemized record setting forth the name, address, title and salary of every officer or employee of an agency, except officers and employees of the state law enforcement agencies, shall be compiled by the fiscal officer charged with the duty of preparing payrolls for such officers, and such records shall be made available for inspection by the officer charged with the duty of certifying such payrolls to bona fide members of the news media upon written notice. In the case of the state police and other law enforcement agencies, the records shall list the official's or employees' title and said salary only, without identifying individual employees. Said written notice shall be made upon a form to be prescribed by the Comptroller of the state and shall be reasonable and specify what records are to be requested with particularity. The records may be inspected under the supervision of the fiscal officer's office and only in the particular fiscal officer's office during regular working hours and regular working days or at such other place as may be convenient to the particular fiscal officer.
I. 
Final determinations and dissenting opinions of members of the governing body, if any, of the agency.
J. 
Any other files, records, papers or documents required by any other provision of law to be made available for public inspection or copying.
A. 
No disclosure of such personal matters as may have been reported in confidence to an agency or municipality and which are not relevant or essential to the ordinary work of the agency or municipality may be made.
B. 
No disclosure of employment, medical or credit histories or personal references of applicants for employment shall be made, except that such records may be disclosed when the applicant has provided a written release permitting such disclosure.
C. 
No disclosure of items involving medical or personal records of a client or patient in a hospital or medical facility may be made.
D. 
The sale or release of lists of names and addresses in the possession of any agency or the municipality if such lists would be used for private, commercial or fund-raising purposes shall not be made.
E. 
No disclosure shall be made of items of a personal nature when disclosure would result in economic or personal hardship to the subject party and such records are not relevant or essential to the ordinary work of the agency or municipality.
F. 
No disclosure of information shall be made of information or records that are specifically exempted by statute.
G. 
No disclosure shall be made of information confidentially disclosed to an agency and compiled and maintained for the regulation of commercial enterprise, including trade secrets, or for the grant and review of a license to do business and which, if openly disclosed, would permit an unfair advantage to competitors of the subject enterprise, but this exemption shall not apply to records the disclosure or publication of which is directed by other statute.
H. 
No information shall be disclosed which, if disclosed, would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
I. 
No disclosure shall be made of investigatory files compiled for law enforcement purposes.
Nothing in these rules and regulations shall be construed to limit or abridge any existing right of access at law or in equity of any party to public records kept by an agency or municipality.